This repository accompanies an analysis of the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) and how 2026 RHTP funding allocations correspond to measures of rural health, access, and projected reductions in Medicaid spending.

There are two SAS files, to be executed in this order:
1) AHRF2018-19.sas. This file is part of the AHRF 2018-2019 data download and produces a 2019 AHRF SAS dataset from an ASC file.
2) rhtp_analyses_jama.sas. This is the only analytical code file. It imports and cleans source data and then produces state-level estimates of total rural population (2020), rural age-adjusted mortality, % change in N rural hospital beds 2017-2022, and % change in N rural physicians per rural capita in 2017-2022. These estimates are exported to the Excel file "state_estimates.xlsx".

The state-level estimates output to "state_estimates.xlsx" are copied into the Excel document "rhtp_analyses_jama.xlsx". All subsequent analyses, including calculations of state-level baseline and variable RHTP funding per rural resident and correlations between those estimates and rural mortality, % change in rural hospital beds, % change in rural physicians per capita, and projected reductions in Medicaid spending are produced in "rhtp_analyses_jama.xlsx".

All source data is publicly accessible. Links to source data downloads are in the last tab of "rhtp_analyses_jama.xlsx".

Contact pchat@pennmedicine.upenn.edu for questions about the analysis, or contact eliza.macneal@pennmedicine.upenn.edu for questions about the code or data sources.